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George Washington
(born a subject) | religion= , Deism later in life | birth= | death= | cause of death=Blood-letting and other treatments for | occupation=Soldier, , Politician, | spouse= Martha Dandridge Custis | children=John Parke Custis (stepson) Martha Parke Custis (stepdaughter) Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (step-granddaughter, adoptive daughter raised by Washington) George Washington Parke Custis (step-grandson, adoptive son raised by Washington) | military branch = British Army , United States Army (American Revolution) |political office = }} George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799), known as the "Father of His Country," was an American soldier and statesman who served from 1789 to 1797 as the first President of the United States. He was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and presided over the 1787 Constitutional Convention. As one of the leading Patriots, he was among the nation's Founding Fathers. Washington was born to a family of prosperous planters among the colonial Virginia gentry. His education included surveying which launched his early career as a surveyor. He joined the Virginia militia at the age of twenty, fought in the French and Indian War, and rose to the rank of colonel. The Second Continental Congress made him commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in 1775. Washington's strategy, field command, and development of the army, combined with an alliance with France, were crucial in defeating the British, who surrendered after the Siege of Yorktown. In 1783, the victorious Washington declined further power and resigned as commander-in-chief, affirming his devotion to American Republicanism. He was unanimously chosen to lead the Constitutional Convention in 1787 which devised the new Federal government. Washington was unanimously elected as President by the Electoral College in the first two national elections. He then oversaw the creation of a strong, well-financed national government, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion, and popularized the new Federal government. Washington was impartial with the rival parties founded by two of his cabinet secretaries: Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party and Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party. However he did adopt Hamilton's programs to satisfy federal and state debts, establish a permanent seat of government, implement an effective tax system, and create a national bank. When the French Revolution plunged Europe into war, Washington initially assumed a policy of neutrality, to protect American shipping abroad—though the Jay Treaty of 1795 created an alliance with Great Britain. Washington's presidency established many precedents still in use today, such as the Cabinet system, the inaugural address, the title "Mr. President", and a two-term limit precedent for future presidents. Washington's Farewell Address was a primer on civic virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars. Succeeding President John Adams appointed the retired Washington Lieutenant General of a Provisional Army in the Quasi-War with the French. Upon his death, he was famously eulogized as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen". In his will he directed the manumission of all his 124 slaves, to promote the end of slavery. Scholarly and public polling ranks him among the top three presidents in history, and he is honored by countless monuments, public works, place names, stamps, and currency. George Washington in "Must and Shall" George Washington was revered by both sides during the Great Rebellion, and this reverence continued as late as 1942. An advantage of this was that American currency bearing Washington's portrait was considered acceptable tender by malcontent whites in the former Confederate States, in stark contrast to their notorious boycott of the Lincoln half-dollar.Counting Up, Counting Down, p. 61, 80. George Washington in The Guns of the South George Washington was a hero to both the United States and the Confederacy. In the CSA, his birthday was celebrated fondly, and a statue of him stood proudly in Capitol Square in Richmond. In the USA, a monument was being built to him in his namesake city, and his name was invoked by former President Abraham Lincoln in his Good Friday speech to the people of Louisville, as a reminder of the history they would forsake by seceding from the Union. George Washington in Southern Victory , Virginia. Some version of this monument has played a role in multiple timelines.]] As a military hero and the first U.S. President, George Washington was universally revered as a major Founding Father and one of the most memorable presidents in U.S. history. Also after it broke into two mutually antagonistic nations during the War of Secession, U.S. historians continued to so regard Washington, alongside Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt as the most memorable of presidents. However, the general public did not always remember the Virginia-born Washington kindly after the War of Secession. Northerners in general preferred to remember Northern Founding Fathers such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. Nonetheless, the U.S. rebuilt the Washington Monument after it was destroyed during the Great War. Before 1920, the Confederate States esteemed Washington as a Founding Father as well, but generally preferred their own founding fathers such as John C. Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson invoked George Washington in his speech asking for Congress for a declaration of war against the USA while speaking in Richmond. The Freedom Party in its earliest phase, while still under Anthony Dresser, used George Washington's picture as an emblem, with the slogan "We need a New Revolution". Jake Featherston, who considered Washington to have "sold out the South to the damnyankees" stopped that custom when he took over the party. Many Confederates did view Washington with some suspicion in the years after the Great War, but still thought of him as a Virginian first, and President of the United States second. Washington University in Lexington, Virginia, home of the Confederacy's effort to build a superbomb, retained its name, and the statue of Washington that stood in Richmond survived both Great Wars. George Washington in The Disunited States of America }}In one alternate visited by Crosstime Traffic, George Washington was remembered in North America as a great general for his service in the Revolutionary War, even though the United States fell apart in the early 1800s. A statue of Washington stood in Richmond. Justin Monroe noted that it was very different from the statue in the home timeline's Richmond. George Washington in ''The Two Georges'' | political office = | occupation =Soldier, , Politician|type of appearance = Posthumous references}}Colonel George Washington was part of group of American colonists who met with King George III, and were able to put in place an 11th-hour agreement avoiding revolution. Washington and the King were immortalised in a Thomas Gainsborough painting entitled ''The Two Georges'', which came to symbolise the friendship between the North American Union and the Kingdom of Great Britain. In his later career as the Governor-General of the North American Union, Washington implemented a policy which halted for some decades the westward expansion of White settlement and gave some Red Indian tribes, such as the Iroquois and the Cherokees, the chance to modernise and consolidate ownership of much of their lands. For that reason he was greatly revered by the Indians, and the Iroquois believed him to be the only white person admitted to their religion's version of Heaven. A model of steamer was named for Washington, as was an American Province. When the racialist paramilitary group known as the Sons of Liberty, who sought a severing of all NAU ties with the British Empire, stole The Two Georges painting in 1995, the note they left behind contained the saying, "Washington was a traitor." Trivia *Washington was a distant relative by marriage to Robert E. Lee and by blood to Winston Churchill. See also *References to Historical Figures in Turtledove's Work#George Washington, for more minor references to Washington. *Victor Radcliff, a fictional character who appears in the Atlantis Series, and plays a role in the United States of Atlantis that is virtually identical to Washington's role in the United States of America. *George Washington at the Eric Flint Wiki *George Washington at the [http://fwoan.wikia.com/wiki/George_Washington For Want of a Nail Wiki] References }} Category:Commanding Generals of the United States Army (OTL) Category:Deists Category:Freemasons Category:Generals Category:Soldiers of the American Revolution Category:The Guns of the South Characters Category:Worldwar Characters